Marshfield Clinic donates $85,000 for Feed My People refrigerated van

An $85,000 donation from Marshfield Clinic Health System will help Feed My People Food Bank buy a refrigerated van, a modest capital purchase aimed at easing one of the biggest choke points in moving rescued food across west central Wisconsin.

Feed My People works across a 14-county, 15,000-square-mile service area, and the organization has said transportation is a major limit on how much food it can move and how fast it can move it. Much of the food it rescues from manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and growers passes through its 46,370-square-foot distribution center in Eau Claire before going out to more than 250 hunger-relief programs. In that kind of network, a refrigerated vehicle is not just a truck purchase. It is cold-chain capacity that can keep food safe long enough to reach pantries, meal sites and other partners that may not have the vehicles, refrigeration or staffing to absorb a pickup on short notice.

The scale of the operation shows why the van matters. Feed My People has said its partners were already rescuing and redistributing roughly 140,000 pounds of food a month, while the organization distributes nearly 9 million pounds a year. Its public materials say it now serves the equivalent of 7.38 million meals annually, and that 101,859 first-time visits were made last year, the highest number in its 44-year history. The 2024 impact report said the food bank was on pace to distribute more than 8 million pounds that year, with fresh food sourced through Farm to Food Bank partnerships up 30% from the year before.

That trend makes refrigerated transport even more important. The more Feed My People leans into fresh produce and other perishables, the more its volunteer routes and partner agencies depend on temperature control and tight timing. A van like this can widen pickup windows, reduce waste when donors are ready to move food, and make volunteer labor more effective by cutting down on avoidable delays. It also helps explain why a food bank’s success often hinges on logistics as much as generosity.

The donation fits a broader regional picture of scale and reach. Cause IQ’s profile says Feed My People distributed over 8 million pounds of food and household products to more than 250 nonprofit food assistance programs in 14 counties, serving an estimated 70,000 low-income individuals. The Eau Claire Area Chamber of Commerce likewise says the food bank distributes more than 7.5 million pounds annually to more than 125 food pantries and hunger-relief agencies in the same 14-county footprint.

For workplace teams in food recovery, the lesson is clear: one refrigerated van can change daily execution across a large network. It can help recovered food move faster, expand the kinds of donations that can be accepted, and keep volunteer routes productive in a system where every mile and every hour matter.